Flourescence

Yet again sitting here and looking for a Physics topic, I find myself staring at a very bright white light coming right at my face–my lamp.  It once used a incandescent light bulb which made everything look a little yellow but now that it has been switched to fluorescent, things don’t look yellow anymore and there isn’t as much heat.

See I don't get burned.

So how do these little guys work?  Well it uses  a mercury based vapor which are excited by electricity which gives off a ultraviolet light.  The light bulb has a phosphor which gives of visible light.

I also wondered why they always have it in straight lines rather than that of a incandescent light but immediately

afterwards it hit me that this way there would be more surface area thus more reaction within the light bulb thus more light.

On another note, while listening to a part of the radio, I heard that a person uses 8 million joules per day which I at first thought was very big until I realized that after conversion it equals roughly 1912.04 Kilocalories or Calories.